A new medical-marijuana dispenser plans to open in Aspen, with two more dispensers awaiting approval.

Chad Harbin has received approval from the city to open Advanced Growing Technologies on Spring Street. He plans to submit his medical-marijuana retail application to the state on Tuesday, eight days before the Oct. 1 deadline to be considered for recreational-marijuana retail conversion.

Ron Radtke, owner of Green Essentials dispensary in Glenwood Springs, has submitted his medical application to the state. He is awaiting business approval from Aspen for a space at Hyman Avenue and Mill Street.

A third group, from Durango — also awaiting Aspen’s approval — plans to operate in the Bidwell Building, located on the Cooper Avenue pedestrian mall.

City staff recommended that for the first year or two, the number of recreational marijuana retailers in Aspen be no greater than the number of established medical dispensaries by Oct. 1. There are now four medical operators in Aspen — Alternative Medical Solutions, Leaf Aspen, Silverpeak Apothecary and Harbin’s business Advanced Growing Technologies.

The proposed pot-shop limit drew some discussion at the Aspen City Council’s Sept. 16 meeting.

Jeff Wertz — who serves on the Liquor License Authority, the entity that will distribute recreational-marijuana-retail licenses — pointed out that Aspen has never capped liquor licenses, so it shouldn’t do it with retail marijuana, either.

“If someone has a clean background, they get the (liquor) license,” Wertz said.

Jordan Lewis, owner of Silverpeak Apothecary, and Damien Horgan, owner of Aspen’s Alternative Medical Solutions, both spoke out against allowing more retailers into the market. Radtke said that from a competitive standpoint, he understands where they’re coming from.

“If I were in their position, I would do the same thing,” he said.

The City Council will discuss the pot-shop limit at Monday’s regular meeting. The council also will review land-use amendments, which will define zoning and operating procedures for recreational marijuana.

Medical dispensaries can begin selling recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, nine months before non-medical applicants. Similar to liquor retailers, recreational-marijuana retailers will be charged a $2,000 operating fee by the city. That’s in addition to the $500 state application fee, half of which the city will collect.

London, United Kingdom: The administration of THC, the primary psychoactive component in cannabis, modulates emotional processing in healthy volunteers, according to placebo-controlled crossover trial data published online by the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology.

Investigators from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on 11 healthy male subjects. Following the administration of THC or placebo, researchers assessed subjects’ brain activity during their exposure to stimuli with a negative (‘fearful faces’) content or a positive content (‘happy faces’). They hypothesized that THC administration would reduce subjects’ negative bias in emotional processing and shift it towards a positive bias. A bias toward negative stimuli has been linked to diagnoses of certain mental illnesses such as depression.

They concluded: “These results indicate that THC administration reduces the negative bias in emotional processing. This adds human evidence to support the hypothesis that the endocannabinoid system is involved in modulation of emotional processing. Our findings also suggest a possible role for the endocannabinoid system in abnormal emotional processing, and may thus be relevant for psychiatric disorders such as major depression.”

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, “The endocannabinoid system and emotional processing: A pharmacological fMRI study with Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol,” will appear in European Neurophyscopharmacology.

We held town hall meetings in Jefferson City and Columbia this week, and both drew supportive crowds eager to know how they can advance the cause. On Monday, our meeting in Jefferson City attracted more than 25 marijuana law reform advocates. Many of them expressed an interest in lobbying our elected officials at the state capitol once the legislature starts its new session in January.

The Columbia town hall was an even greater success, thanks largely to the efforts of SMCR board chair, criminal defense attorney, and longtime Columbia resident Dan Viets. I wasn’t able to make it to the event, but Dan sent along this write-up:

A standing-room only crowd of more than 100 assembled at the Daniel Boone Public Library in Columbia Thursday night for a Marijuana Town Hall Meeting. They heard statements from Missouri Representatives Chris Kelly and Rory Ellinger that they are seriously considering filing bills to tax and regulate cannabis like alcohol, allow access to medical marijuana and/or decriminalize non-medical possession.

Kelly said he needs to be persuaded that the movement for legalization in Missouri is capable of putting together a winning campaign. He acknowledged that money is an important and necessary element of such a campaign, but said he also wants to see a winning campaign strategy.

His bill may ask the legislature to place the issue on the ballot and leave the final decision up to the voters. This would save the movement the need to spend great amounts of money just to get the issue on the ballot, and then have to raise more money for the campaign to pass the proposal.

Columbia Daily Tribune Publisher and Editor Hank Waters joined in, calling for full legalization, and conservative Tribune columnist and radio personality Bob Roper agreed. I offered opening comments and moderated the discussion.

Several audience members extolled the virtues of hemp as an agricultural commodity and a new revenue source for Missouri farmers. It was noted that Missouri was, and could again be, one of the major hemp producing states.

Several patients talked about their need for access to marijuana for medical reasons. Rep Ellinger has been the leading proponent of expanded expungement laws in Missouri, including allowing for expungement of cannabis offenses.

SMCR is drafting a proposal to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol which could be the basis for an initiative effort. SMCR may also ask Reps. Kelly and Ellinger to introduce the draft as a bill in the Missouri General Assembly, which could be in addition to an initiative effort or an alternative to one.